“There’s a reason they call them the ‘Unbelievable Bulgarians‘,” exclaimed the commentators shortly after 18-year-old weightlifter Karlos Nasar set four new World Records with a single lift at the 2023 European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia.
At the conclusion of the 89-kilogram division, Nasar shocked the crowd when he successfully clean & jerked 221 kilograms, or 487.2 pounds. That lift not only earned him the overall gold medal but confirmed Nasar’s status as the brightest rising star in weightlifting.
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Nasar’s 221-kilogram lift allowed him to etch his name into the record books of weightlifting four times, rewriting history in the following categories:
- Junior World Record clean & jerk
- Junior World Record Total
- Senior World Record clean & jerk
- Senior World Record Total
Nasar had previously held three of those four achievements; he claimed the Total record from Italian lifter Antonino Pizzolato, who opted out of competing at this year’s EWC at the last minute. Nasar’s gold-medal-winning, record-setting Total of 395 kilograms was built with his best competition snatch of 174 kilograms (383.6 pounds). That snatch was also a new Junior World Record; his fifth on the day.
Nasar in Context
At 18 years of age, Karlos Nasar is rapidly making a case for himself as one of the sport’s best modern competitors and, should he continue his trajectory, among the greatest weightlifters of all time. A strong claim to make, however, his achievements as a Junior athlete can go toe-to-toe with some of the best weightlifting performances in the last few years:
- Nasar’s 395-kilogram Total at 89 kilograms would’ve won the silver medal in the 96-kilogram class at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Nasar Totaled 50 kilograms higher than the 89-kilogram Junior World Champion and 14 above the Senior World Champion in 2022.
- Nasar’s 395-kilogram Total would have won the gold medal in the 89, 96, and 102-kilogram categories at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships.
- Nasar’s 221-kilogram jerk is heavier than every non-superheavyweight clean & jerk performed at the 2022 European Weightlifting Championships.
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2023 European Weightlifting Championships | 89-Kilogram Podium
Nasar won the overall gold medal at the 2023 EWC by a 21-kilogram margin. However, the battleground 89-kilogram division was chock-full of spectacular lifting from all competitors. Here’s how the podium in Yerevan looked when the dust had settled:
- Karlos Nasar (BUL) — 395 (174/221)
- Andranik Karapetyan (ARM) — 374 (178/196)
- Marin Robu (MDA) — 364 (166/198)
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Featured Image: European Weightlifting Federation / @ewc_yerevan2023 on Instagram